Vitali’s w ryly
titled Compass
necklace takes
its name in
part from its
materials:
recycled maps.
new sletters, gift wrapping and,
recently, the Y e llo w Pages.
She also incorporates ster-
ling silver, pearls, glass beads
and steel cable w ith acrylic and
a m ixture o f clear mica for a
shimmering finish. For the Gold
K eycooz necklace, she modified
a w eaving method based on the
old “ scoubidou” technique that
kids use to make keychains
from vinyl thread.
She has begun to create piec-
es that can be manipulated to
reveal different colors on each
side o f the pendants, allowing
the w earer to determine the
final look o f her neckpiece. She
w ove maps into three concen-
tric m ovable circles to make
Com pass: “I’m always home-
sick for Italy,” the artist admits,
“so the maps and compass rep-
resented m y nostalgia, the idea
o f looking for m y w ay hom e.”
ITALIAN-BORN, ROCHESTER,
NY-based Francesca V itali
earned tw o degrees in chem is-
try and has been w orking as a
researcher ever since. A fter
taking a m etalworking class in
2006 at the Penland School o f
Crafts, h ow ever, she began
moonlighting as a jew eler-in
paper. “ Paper was at first a
choice o f convenience,” she
says. “It was the easiest raw
material. But over time it has
becom e m y preferred media for
com pletely different reasons.”
Vitali discovered that, despite
its flimsy look, paper is durable
and offers a w ide range o f color
comparable only to polym er
clay and enameling. W orking
w ith paper also allowed her to
re-animate discarded m aterial-
pages from books, catalogs,
newspapers, m agazines, parts
o f shopping bags, museum
Francesca V itali
Individual pieces
o f the Bolle necklace
can be flipped to reveal
different colors.
fruccidesign.com
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038 american craft dec/jann
